The Starship U.S.S. Saladin is a Destroyer-Class Vessel designed by Franz Joseph in the 1970's as part of the Starfleet Technical Manual. Various sources have included the ship design as canon to Star Trek, such as references to it on Bridge readouts in Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan, as well as her sister ships mentioned in communiques from the Epsilon 9 space station in STTMP.
It has also been said that Gene Roddenberry did not like odd-numbered nacelles on ships.
I never heard him say it, and he signed off on the Tech Manual. So, as far as I'm concerned, the ship is a valid ship. It's one of the 4 oldest Federation Starship designs ever created.
So, it's canon to me.
There will be more to come.
Ken
P.S. Here is the Enterprise built by Thomas Phong that will be appearing in the film. I have already converted this ship into the Saladin in 3d, but am still working on the texture maps.
Note: This is an excerpt from an interview with Franz Joseph's daughter, Karen Dick, who now holds rights to his estate:
"Side note here: FJ never objected to single, fan-produced, not-for-resale use of his logos (like the fan who made a 41 Eridani t-shirt for herself with fabric paints, or the fan who chopped up two AMT Enterprise model kits to build a Dreadnought), and, as administrator of FJ's estate, neither do I. The violations I'm talking about in the paragraph above refer to mass-produced, definitely-for-resale, profit-making ventures, and they should have licensing agreements with and pay royalties to Franz Joseph Designs. Period. End of sermon."
The full interview can be found in its entirety here:
http://www.trekplace.com/franzjoseph.html
The Starship Saladin project, is made in honor of Franz Joseph, whose wonderful work should be seen on screen. It is a not-for-profit venture.
--Ken
A friend of mine who is doing an online anime-style Star Trek comic book, set on the U.S.S. Tamerlane, sister ship of the U.S.S. Saladin, is doing a crossover story with my ship and crew. This image is a way to tell him "Thank you!" and hopefully send a few new readers his way. I hope you all take the time to go read his stories. If you like Star Trek, you'll enjoy these. If you like good human stories, you'll enjoy them whether you like Star Trek or not.
Ken
View the U.S.S. Tamerlane adventures at
http://www.usstamerlane.com
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Image rendered in 3d Studio Max, based on an original model of the U.S.S. Enterprise modeled by Thomas Phong, and converted by Kenneth Thomson Jr. The ship is still a work in progress. Image best viewed full size!
Full resolution:
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/galle...le_1764784.jpg
